Global: NYT email subscriptions hit 13m

The New York Times has amassed 13 million email subscriptions, more than twice the number it had three years ago.

The Times revealed the increase in an email to staff on Tuesday. It attributes much of the growth to an increase in the number of newsletters it publishes.

Digiday reports that The Times was sending out 33 newsletters regularly in 2015. Today, it sends out more than 50 editorial emails at least weekly (along with seven marketing-focused newsletters, which are sent less frequently). The editorial emails range from local news (California Today, NYT Australia) to service (Cooking, Smarter Living) to history (Vietnam ‘67, a look back at the Vietnam War through the prism of a single year).

According to The Times memo, that growth matters because newsletter subscribers are twice as likely as regular New York Times readers to become subscribers, the primary area of focus for the publisher. They also read twice as many stories per month as the average Times reader.

UK print publisher removes all editorial from websites

UK print media publisher Johnston Press has removed all editorial content from its masthead websites as it attempts to drive the traffic of the six titles to the print editions and social media.

Talking to UK site Hold the Front Page, a spokesperson for the publisher said: “We are currently exploring a number of digital options which allow our news teams to focus on providing the best news coverage – be it in print or online.

Media consumption growing at a slowing rate

New research from American firm Zenith shows that the amount time people spend consuming news media continued to grow in 2016, but the data suggests that this number could drop this year.

On average, individuals spent 456.1 minutes, or 7.5 hours, each day reading, watching and listening to media. In 2017, global audiences are expected to cut their consumption by 30 seconds to 455.8 minutes.

Mobile drove media consumption, which rose 44 per cent from 2010 to 2016. However, the rate is slowing as audiences reach saturation point.

According to data projections for 2017-19, the internet will soon overtake television consumption and the use of desktops to access the net will decrease.